Counter Clockwise

An XCOM Fan Fiction

Chapter 1

"I'm going in!" Darius Lee, call sign 'Stomper' called into his radio to his squad as he prepared to open the door to the bridge of the downed UFO. He hit the button and the multi-coloured mottled energy barrier that serves as a door in the alien ship disappeared with a whoosh. Stomper looked into the bridge and saw two Sectoids inside, cowering behind a console.

"Contact! 2 Xrays in sight!" Stomper reported and dashed inside. The Sectoids opened fire with their plasma pistols. Stomper felt the heat from the searing plasma shots passing just above his head. The shots missed. Stomper sprinted for a console that offered him some cover and dove behind it.

He felt one of the plasma shot hit the console but his cover was sturdy enough to block the shot. Quickly getting his feet under him, he peered over the cover and saw the Sectoid running from behind his cover. Stomper raised his laser rifle and pulled the trigger. The red beam caught the Sectoid square in the torso. The alien went down with a high pitched shriek. Stomper quickly searched for the second Sectoid, the gray skinned, almond shaped eyes alien.

"Got him in my sights!" Sargeant Tanner's voice called out through his headset and Stomper saw a salvo of laser shots streaking into the room and hit something behind a large console just opposite where he was. Another shriek was heard and Tanner announced his kill with the familiar "Xray down!"

The room fell into an eerie silence after that. Stomper was the only operative in the bridge. The others were outside the door. He looked at the motion sensor on his wrist com strapped to his left wrist. For a split second he thought he saw a blip on the screen showing something inside the bridge. He scanned the room with his eyes and saw nothing. Going back to his sensor also yielded nothing. He kept looking at the sensor for another 2 seconds. Nothing.

"No contacts," he whispered into his radio headset.

"No readings," came the reply from Tanner. "I'm moving in!"

"Roger that," Stomper replied and he watched the space inside the bridge. "I've got you covered!" he continued and Tanner dashed into the room and headed for cover. There were no contacts.

"I think we nailed all of them," Tanner reported.

Stomper was satisfied after another glance at his motion sensor. Nothing is moving except his squad members. He decided to call it.

"Alright! Bridge secure," he said coming out from behind the console he was crouched behind. Tanner similarly came out from cover.

"Strike One Alpha to Central," Stomper reported. "Operation was a success. All hostiles neutralized."

"Strike One Alpha, this is Central," a familiar voice came over the radio. It was Central Officer Bradford. "Nice job down there. You're cleared to return to base. I'm sending in the clean-up crew."

"Copy that Central. Strike One Alpha out," Stomper said as he gave the bridge a last look around. Tanner was already heading out the door. The 2 dead Sectoids were motionless on the floor. Something struck Stomper as strange but he couldn't put his finger on it. As he headed towards the door, he suddenly realized what it was. They had not come across the commander of the UFO like in the other crashed UFO raids.

As he was about to call this in something dropped from above onto him. The weight threw him onto the floor face first. He lost his grip on his laser rifle and it clattered a few feet away from him. Darius' heart sank. Without even seeing his assailant, he knew that this was the Sectoid commander that was missing. As he turned his head sideways to look, the large gray skinned head that greeted his eyes confirmed his fear.

Darius found himself looking into the large almond shaped eyes of his enemy. As he was about to call for help he saw the alien eyes that was looking into him seemed to radiate a kind of sadness that he had never seen before. Then he felt his mind being invaded. The alien was using its psionic powers on him. Images began flooding into his mind. He screamed.

He heard chatter on his radio headset but he could not make out the words. Strange images continued to flood into his mind. He let out another scream. Then it suddenly stopped and Darius found the alien now lying dead beside him on the floor, its brains shot out.

"You alright captain?" came the voice over his radio. He felt strong hands pulling him up into a sitting position. It was Rookie Zaytsev. This was Zaytsev's first mission and he was had just shot the Sectoid commander off his squad's captain.

"You alright, sir?" Zaytsev asked again, looking concerned.

"Yeah! Yeah!" Darius replied, still a bit disoriented. "I'm fine. Thanks."

Darius looked down at the dead Sectiod commander again. The eyes suddenly came alive and the alien jumped at him. Darius screamed and sat bolt upright inside his darkened room. He gasped for breath as he looked around. Four windowless gray colored walls; a desk with a chair to his left; a computer terminal on the desk; a door to the bathroom opposite the bed; a wall closet and a door that led outside the room to his right greeted him. It was his room all right. He found himself bathed in sweat as he tried to get his racing heart to slow.

He buried his face into his hands. It's that nightmare again. After he had calmed down somewhat, he glanced at the clock on his bedside drawer. The led displayed showed 4.23am, October 3rd 2062. In another 35 minutes or so the alarm will go off. Darius decided to get out of bed. He won't be getting anymore sleep now. He went to into the adjoined bathroom and flipped on the lights. Turning the tap he scooped up some water with his hands and splashed them onto his face. The stinging coldness drove the last of the sleep from him. The water ran off his face and down onto his bare chest and wetted his pajama bottom.

He looked into the mirror. A wet face stared back. Darius' hair had streaks of gray in them and he still had 3 years to go before he hit the big 40 but being the commander of the XCOM didn't help his looks. Even though he was Asian, Darius had high cheekbones and facial features that made him look more like a European. If not for his black hair and dark brown eyes, he could easily pass as a European.

XCOM or eXtra terrestrial COMbat is a paramilitary organization set up to deal with the alien invasion that started late in 2060. Alien invaders had appeared and started to openly abduct people or conducted terror raids around the globe. XCOM was initially funded collectively by 16 nations around the world. The aim was to get the best of the best in terms of military experience as well as research and development together to come up with means to fight off the alien invasion.

Darius raised his left hand and reached for the base of neck. His index finger ran over a scar that traced a line just above his right collar bone and continued about halfway round to the back of his neck. It was the scar that the Sectoid commander had left him when he dropped from the ceiling of the UFO bridge. Zaytsev had shot him through the head but in his nightmare, the Sectiod always came back to life and jumped right at him again. He was always jolted awake when that happened.

The wound on his neck had healed but the images that the Sectoid commander had pumped into his head had never faded. In fact they had always been fresh in his mind.

Darius rode the elevator up to sublevel 2 in the 'Ant Farm', that's what the XCOM staff took to calling it. Their base of operations was completely underground and was located somewhere in the jungles of the Republic of Congo in the African continent. It housed all the necessary facilities, a barracks for the soldiers, living quarters for the other staff, an infirmary, research labs, workshops, power generators and even the hangar was underground. The hangar, Mission Control and barracks were at the topmost level, just beneath the ground. Various other facilities came below that. The residential dorms where the non-military staff were housed were somewhere in the middle levels. Currently there were 10 sublevels. As and when needed, they could excavate and dig deeper if they needed more space for new facilities.

The doors of the elevator opened to the same drab grey colored hallways. Utilitarian but functional. Darius stepped out and turned right and headed towards the laboratory. The lab took out most of the space on the right wing of this level, extending from the elevator to almost the end. The only other facility down that way was the Elerium power generator at the very end. Since the generator's function was mostly automated, this wing belonged almost exclusively to the scientific research members.

Walking down the hallway, Darius paused in front of the double doors that led to the main laboratory. He pushed at it and stepped inside. Although the hallways seemed deserted, inside the labs there was a flurry of activities. Computers hummed. Staff was either hunched over terminals or poring over some research papers. Busy was an understatement.

Darius walked into the labs and paused for a while looking over the crowd, searching for someone. He found her huddled with a group of other researchers. He walked over to her.

Dr. Vahlen, head of the scientific research department turned when she heard Darius approaching from behind her.

"Ah, commander," she said after seeing him. "It's rare that we get a visit from you down here so early in the day."

"Dr. Vahlen, you look terrible," Darius commented. "You should get some rest."

Dr. Vahlen was quite an attractive woman. Slim, tall with shoulder length brown hair that is now held up by a pin to the back of her head with stray strands hanging down showing that she had been working long hours. Way too long hours.

"Sleep is a luxury we can ill afford at this time, commander," Dr. Vahlen replied with her usual German accent. "Besides we are at the verge of a breakthrough. The Ethereal alien that the troops brought in recently have provided us some much needed data."

"I guess that means the Psi Labs are showing some results," Darius said to keep Vahlen from rattling off about her work that she usually did.

"Yes, we have re-calibrated the settings and we should be able to train soldiers to use their psionic gifts much better now," she said and paused for a while looking up from her tablet PC at the commander. "That is, if we can find one that is gifted enough to be trained, commander."

"I see," Darius replied nodding slightly. "Very well then, carry on," he concluded and started to leave. As he turned he scanned the room again. He picked out one face among the researchers and ensured that the person had eye contact with him. He then walked out the labs and closed the door behind him.

Cindy Chang caught the commander's eyes as he walked out of the labs. She then hurried to clear her desk and headed to the door herself. It was the end of her shift and no one questioned her leaving. She hurried to the doors and went out into the hallway. It was empty. After making sure that she had closed the doors to the lab firmly and that there was no other person in the hallway, she quickly turned left and headed towards where the Elerium generator was. She walked past the entrance to the generator and turned into a small corridor. It led to the washrooms.

She quickened her steps and after making sure that no one else was around a second time, she pushed at the door and ducked into the men's room.

As she entered she locked the door behind her. Inside hunched over a sink with a running tap was Darius. He was splashing water on his face. Cindy ran towards him and embraced him.

"Oh Darius," she said her voice barely louder than a whisper. "We have to stop meeting like this!"

"I know and I'm sorry," Darius replied and then pushed her away from his chest so that he could look her in the face. "Do you have the report?"

Cindy nodded and reached into her lab coat pocket, pulling out a folded paper. Darius unfolded the paper and looked at it. It contained a bunch of numbers and terms that he did not comprehend. "What does all this mean?" he asked.

Cindy looked him in the eyes. "Your numbers are way off the charts! We haven't seen any candidates having anything that's even close to yours!" she said nervously.

"Then I am psionically gifted," Darius stated what he had feared for some time now.

"Yes!"

"Then the aliens have been trying to communicate with me," Darius said releasing Cindy and turning back to the mirror over the sink. He wasn't sure what this new information alluded to at the moment.

"That is highly possible!" Cindy said. "But why would they want to? Aren't they trying to kill us all?"

"I don't know," Darius admitted as he searched the sink for an answer. "I feel that they want the same thing as us. For the war to end. I.. I just don't know!"

Cindy hugged him from behind. "What do we do?"

Darius had no answer for that.